I am delighted with the Franklin’s Emporium books I have read, The Pet Shop Mystery and The White Lace Gloves. The books are attractively produced and from the first two sentences of each I was hooked, intrigued to discover how the stories unfolded. The personality of Alex comes alive in each adventure, as do the other characters. Fantasy and magic are woven into the tales in a way that is plausible and amusing, while Aleksei Bitskoff’s illustrations enhance Gill Vickery’s superb story-telling. I couldn’t put the books down and am sending copies to my niece and nephew, for I know they will love to read them. We eagerly await the next in the series.

"...Franklin's was a huge art deco department store, built about eighty years ago when Golden Bay was what my mum called, "a playground for the wealthy." Then the town went out of fashion and Franklin's closed down. It was put up for sale and let it out in "units"."

"...Even though it looked like a squashed toad I recognized the scowl. The green dress flapping round the bony shoulders was familiar as well. And the lace gloves on its clenched hands.

This mummy-thing was... "

"...She sat on the bed as if her legs had suddenly turned to jelly and slithered down against the pillows.

"I think I'll have a little nap," she murmured and snuggled up to her pillow like a baby resting against its mum's shoulder."

Mushroom designs in Society6 shop

Mastery

“We are all in search of feeling more connected to reality—to other people, the times we live in, the natural world, our character, and our own uniqueness. Our culture increasingly tends to separate us from these realities in various ways. We indulge in drugs or alcohol, or engage in dangerous sports or risky behavior, just to wake ourselves up from the sleep of our daily existence and feel a heightened sense of connection to reality. In the end, however, the most satisfying and powerful way to feel this connection is through creative activity. Engaged in the creative process we feel more alive than ever, because we are making something and not merely consuming, Masters of the small reality we create. In doing this work, we are in fact creating ourselves.”

― Robert Greene, Mastery

Curiosity

"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths".